To PhD or not to PhD

Hi, I am currently studying an Mphys with industrial placement and am currently on my placement at an R&D company and have been working on simulating radiation detectors. I've really been enjoying the work and it's flying by.

Anyway, I'm currently trying to decide what I want to do after I graduate, I am thinking about doing a PHD, in either computational modelling (since I've been enjoying the modeling and programming I've been doing during my placement) or in physics or engineering. The alternative is to start on a graduate scheme. Overall I would really enjoy working in a research or R&D environment.

I want to know if you peeps think about my career prospects afterwards, I'm not wanting to do the PhD purely to advance my career. I want to contribute and do some real physics and learn more deeply about physics in a particular topic. However after my PhD I'm going to need a job. I would love to do postDocs and work in academic physics research.

However I know this is in no way certain and want to know what industrial employers would think of a PhD. Should I do a more computational PhD so I can get work in programming if the research career doesn't work. Or should I do whatever I like and go into graduate schemes if research doesn't work out. Do employers appreciate the skills and work ethic you develop during a PHD or do they consider it dossing around for almost 4 years?

Also, will they consider me to have experience since I've done the 6 month placement or would, after a ~4 year PhD, that be pretty much irrelevant?

Tl;Dr: how will a PHD effect industial employer opinions if I can't get into academic research and need to get an industry based job?

Thanks for your opinions and sorry for the long post :smile:

Reply 1

nonswimmer

Original post by helpfulphysicist

However I know this is in no way certain and want to know what industrial employers would think of a PhD. Should I do a more computational PhD so I can get work in programming if the research career doesn't work. Or should I do whatever I like and go into graduate schemes if research doesn't work out. Do employers appreciate the skills and work ethic you develop during a PHD or do they consider it dossing around for almost 4 years?

Go to the next careers fair you can and ask this question to recruiters from companies you might consider working for. Do they employ PhDs? How many? In what jobs? What advantages to PhDs confer in their companies? Do they have links with their local universities enabling staff to do some academic research? etc.

Reply 2

helpfulphysicist

Original post by nonswimmer

Thanks, that's a good idea, I'll have to pop to the next careers fair :smile:

Reply 3

Smack

Volunteer Team

If you're enjoying what you're currently doing, then why not see if you can get a permanent position with the company?

Reply 4

poohat

Original post by helpfulphysicist

Anyway, I'm currently trying to decide what I want to do after I graduate, I am thinking about doing a PHD, in either computational modelling (since I've been enjoying the modeling and programming I've been doing during my placement) or in physics or engineering. The alternative is to start on a graduate scheme. Overall I would really enjoy working in a research or R&D environment.
From a purely career pespective it depends on the quality of the PhD institution, and grad scheme. Turning down a fully funded Cambridge PhD for a generic science grad scheme (or whatever) probably wouldnt be a great career move. A PhD at London Met, not so much. Other universities will be somewhere in the middle.

I want to know if you peeps think about my career prospects afterwards, I'm not wanting to do the PhD purely to advance my career. I want to contribute and do some real physics and learn more deeply about physics in a particular topic. However after my PhD I'm going to need a job. I would love to do postDocs and work in academic physics research.

Academic physics is insanely competitive with very few jobs, I would recommend going into your PhD expecting an industry job afterwards, and view landing a permanent academic job as an unlikely-but-possible bonus..

Depends on many things, including institution quality. A Cambridge PhD is going to get an interview almost everywhere they apply, a London Met PhD not so much. Typically as long as your PhD is in an applied field and from a good institution, you should be ok. And yes, computational/applied PhDs will probalby have slighlty better career prospects.

Or should I do whatever I like and go into graduate schemes if research doesn't work out.

Depends. Personally I wouldnt be happy if I spent 3-4 years doing a PhD and ended up in some job I could have done straight out of undergrad, but other people dont see it this way. Its entirely personal. Perhaps you just want to spend 3 years of your life doing something you enjoy before starting on a semi/unrelated career path, there is nothing wrong with this.

Do employers appreciate the skills and work ethic you develop during a PHD or do they consider it dossing around for almost 4 years?

Depends on the employer. The ones who dont appreciate physics PhDs arent the ones you want to work for anyway. But noone appreciates 'work ethic' for its own sake, its not like companies are giving out great jobs to anthropology PhDs even though they probably work just as hard.

Realistically an applied physics PhD from a top university should give you lots of options because it a) acts as a badge of smartness, and b) hopefully shows you have great programming/computational/etc skills. The sort of jobs you would be looking at would ideally be highly technical startups and such-like which specialise in your area, or research roles at more established firms. There is also the finance industry; while quant work isnt what it was, a physics PhD from Oxbridge/London should still get you a 6 figure job in a bank if you dont mind boring work, and if you're lucky you might even get one of the few more interesting quant jobs.

do they consider it dossing around for almost 4 years?

A physics PhD from a good university obviously enhances your CV rather than making it look worse, I suspect you have been spending time reading scare stories on the internet written by US humanities PhDs who cant get jobs.

But you are looking at it in the wrong way; the sort of industry jobs you apply for with an applied PhD probably wont be the same jobs you apply for straight out of undergrad (they wont even necessarily be 'better' or higher paying, just different).

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 5

Cora Lindsay

You're on placement now. How many of the staff in the company where you're working have PhDs? In many companies, you don't get far in a technical role without a PhD so if you see yourself following a technical career path, then the PhD may well be almost a requirement.

Reply 6

Nymthae

Original post by Cora Lindsay

Having a look around sounds like a good idea. I've just finished my placement (chemical), and everyone I work with has somewhat basic academic backgrounds (one chap has a third...) and the rest got degrees from Man Met funded whilst working through an apprenticeship. That was before the company got took over by a major international. Now? If I look at everyone working over in the R&D sites they all have PhDs. They don't even look at your application if you don't have a PhD.

I was adamant when I started my degree I wasn't going to do a PhD, now i'm having to rethink...